As patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, bipartisanship
is the last refuge of the partisan. For Sunday’s vote on the
Senate health care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wore a light
purple suit, literally wrapping herself in the color of
bipartisanship. Rep. David Obey, who was presiding, wore a purple
necktie, as President Obama did during his State of the Union
address. Pelosi spoke of the 200 Republican amendments included
in the bill that everyone knows doesn’t contain a single major
Republican idea.
The health care reform bill was a partisan Democrat
smorgasbord of taxes, regulations and entitlement. There was
nothing bipartisan about it, but there the Democrats were,
wearing their purple and attacking Republicans for uniformly
opposing the bill that didn’t have any Republican votes because
it didn’t earn any.
It was a sign of how surreal American politics has become.
Stagecraft and spin trump facts; symbolism and rhetoric trump
truth. Though 34 Democrats voted against the bill, making
opposition to it the only bipartisan act of the day, anyone
absorbing the theatrics might be misled, as intended, into
thinking that the majority was acting out of a spirit of
bipartisan unity while the minority was stewing, recalcitrant, in
its own hate and bile.
Campaigning in New Hampshire in October of 2007, Sen. Obama
said, “We’re not going to pass universal health care with a, with
a 50-plus-one strategy.” Ah, the old, bipartisan Obama Americans
thought they were electing. If only they’d gotten that guy as
president instead of Mr. “I won. So I think on that one, I trump
you.”
That’s what Obama told House Republican Whip Eric Cantor in
January of 2009 when Republicans objected to parts of the
stimulus bill. That would be the “bipartisan” stimulus bill that,
like the health care bill, seemed written expressly to irritate
Republicans.
“Both at the state legislative level and at the federal
legislative level, I have always been able to work together with
Republicans to find compromise and to find common ground,” Obama
said during the campaign, selling himself as one who will
compromise with Republicans, not ram through legislation they
oppose, not treat them as the enemy.
Endorsing Obama in the New Hampshire primary, the
Valley News wrote, “Ultimately, though, the case for
Obama is not just what he proposes to do but how he proposes to
do it…. He seeks reconciliation — at home and abroad — and
steps forward, ready to speak a language of common
understanding.”
That was the myth Obama manufactured because he thought it
gave him an advantage over Hillary Clinton and would play well in
a general election. Clinton opted to cast herself as a liberal
fighter against evil Republicans. Obama outflanked her by
campaigning as a unifier who would bring America together by
ending petty partisan games in Washington.
“He will be a real uniter, not just in words,” one New
Hampshire voter, seduced by the rhetoric, said just weeks before
the primary. Though Obama’s myth-making didn’t win a majority of
New Hampshire Democrats, it did win a majority of Americans. They
really believed it.
But that doesn’t change fact that that Obama is, in fact,
highly partisan. He could buy Prince’s entire wardrobe and sing
“Purple Rain” at the Super Bowl halftime show and that wouldn’t
make him any less blue. Theatrics and rhetoric don’t make one
bipartisan; actually reaching out to the other side and working
to craft legislation that incorporates opposition ideas does. How
does the health care bill fare by that score?
Well, as Greg Sargent
pointed out yesterday, Social Security and Medicare both
passed with bipartisan support in Congress; Obamacare
didn’t.
Obama and Pelosi blame that on GOP obstructionism. But the
GOP was obstructionist because the Democrats’ attitude was, “I
won. So, I think on that one, I trump you.” The majority didn’t
reach out to the minority or work in good faith to incorporate
minority party ideas to craft a middle-of-the-road bill. As a
result, the public erupted in opposition, too. The latest health
care poll, conducted by CNN over the weekend, shows that 59
percent of Americans oppose the bill and only 39 percent support
it. Is 60 percent of the American public being obstructionist,
too? No; like Republicans, they’re angry at being
ignored.
The promise of a post-partisan America unified by Obama’s
gentle, inclusive leadership had about as much chance of coming
true as Darth Vader’s promise to rule the universe hand-in-hand
with Luke. It was always a fantasy, a Jedi mind trick played on
the entire country at once.
And Obama’s still trying to play it. His rhetoric remains
sweet and seductive, his speech laced with talk of unity and
togetherness. But his actions are dividing the country. They show
that he doesn’t really care about unifying the nation or ending
business as usual in Washington. Judging by his actions, his one
and only priority is to build permanent public monuments to
himself by expanding the welfare state to control every area of
life that it doesn’t already control. He’s already got health
care. What’s next?
